Labor Market Flexibility In Thirteen Latin American Countries And The United States Labor Market Flexibility In 13 Latin American Countries And The United States

'Once again, the quick capacity to overcome economic difficulties in 1995 was insufficient to mark improvements on the labor field.' -- ILO-Latin America, Editorial, Labor Outlook 1996 For the first time, this volume compares labor market flexibility across countries in Latin America and the United States. The study uses two performance variables, a price variable measured by real wages and a quantity variable measured alternatively by either employment or unemployment. This paper looks into the structural relationship between output and these variables across 13 countries in Latin America and the United States for the last 20-30 years as a way of measuring the ability of the labor market to absorb output shocks. This Paper Studies Labor Market Flexibility In 13 Latin American Countries--argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, And Venezuela--since The 1960s And 1970s By Looking At The Sensitivity Of Employment And Unemployment, And Real Wages With Respect To Output. It Finds That Price Stabilization Has Brought Real-wage Stability, But That It Has Tended To Increase Uncertainty Of Job Security. It Argues That Declining Inflation Makes Labor Market Rigidities Binding Because Labor Markets Cannot Absorb Output Shocks Through Prices. Cyclical Relationships Are Studies By Constructing Okun Coefficients For Unemployment, Employment, And Wages Using First Differences And The Cyclical Component Of A Hodrick-prescott (hp) Decomposition Of The Series. This Paper Finds That Compared With The United States, Output Fluctuations In Latin America Have A Small Effect On Employment And Unemployment, But A Large Effect On Real Wages. The Most Important Determinants Of The Flexibility Indicators Are Labor Market Reforms. Long-term Relationships Are Studies Using A Standard Production Function And The Permanent Component Of The Hp Decomposition Of The Series. In All Seven Countries That Implemented A Price Stabilization Program, The Output Elasticity Of Employment Increased, Implying Higher Productivity And Lower Employment Generation. José Antonio González Anaya. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 60-63). Annotation Once again, the quick capacity to overcome economic difficulties in 1995 was insufficient to mark improvements on the labor field.-ILO-Latin America, Editorial, Labor Outlook 1996 For the first time, this volume compares labor market flexibility across countries in Latin America and the United States. The study uses two performance variables, a price variable measured by real wages and a quantity variable measured alternatively by either employment or unemployment. This paper looks into the structural relationship between output and these variables across 13 countries in Latin America and the United States for the last 20-30 years as a way of measuring the ability of the labor market to absorb output shocks